Horror Short Reviews: tEXt, VEXED and Bloody Mary Horror Short Film
I’ve been feeling
pretty rough, which has led me to spend a lot of time on my bed. When
I could muster the energy to watch something, I realised I didn’t
have the focus for anything long-winded or complex. YouTube came to
the rescue however, in the form of a number of horror short films:
tEXt, VEXED and Bloody Mary Horror Short Film.
What’s more, I’m making hay from those thirty minutes or so of
entertainment and squeezing some writing out of the endeavour.
tEXt
I quite like horror (or
any film to be honest), that incorporates everyday technology into
the story. It adds another reality anchor to the film, another point
of relatability between it and normal everyday life. tEXt is a
short horror described as “a modern day take on silent films
blended with horror”. The silence comes from the fact that
smartphones are used to do the talking, the messages floating up on
screen, the actress looking suitably annoyed, afraid or whatever is
called for, as she reads them.
I liked that tEXt
didn’t take a heavy handed approach to hinting at the situation
depicted, a few questions are left hovering in the viewer’s mind.
On the other hand, the low number of characters in this film didn’t
leave too many permutations, so I did pretty much guess what was
coming relatively quickly. Even so, I enjoyed it, and I thought it
was a pretty decent attempt at creating that tech-based uneasiness
that films of any size often seem to struggle with.
Published on
YouTube: 28 Nov 2017
Starring: Kelsey
Samara Dacci & Emily Hutchison
Created by: Tye
Gibson & Nick Johnson
VEXED
Next up is VEXED, a short horror in which no good comes from taking the piss out of horror film plots. A couple are watching a low-rent horror on TV, the kind in which “you know the plot as soon as you’ve read the title”. This is pretty much what the guy mutters as he is quizzed by his girlfriend at his lack of interest. She drifts off to make popcorn, and the first uneasiness creeps into things due to a small kiss and a case of mistaken identity.
Later, noises are
heard, and the first of the “staring into the darkness” scenes
begins. To say more would be to say too much, but the “things” in
the film range from very creepy, to slightly less creepy. What I did
enjoy was the way the film utilises space-time in a clever way, and
it actually made what was happening on screen seem more sinister by
letting the viewer have two separate scenes to compare. That might
not make much sense, but if you watch the film (go on, it’s only 13
minutes) you will know what I am talking about.
VEXED has won a plethora of awards and nominations, including “Best Bloody Twisted Horror Short at the Twisted Horror Picture Show”, “Fear Awards Official Selection 2017” and was a Nominee for the iHorror Awards 2017.
Published on
YouTube: 1 Oct 2018
Starring: Baker
Chase Powell, Nosheen Phoenix, Alex Diehl, Joshua Zain, Richardson
Jones.
Directed by:
Marc Cartwright
Created by:
Glass Cabin Films
Bloody Mary Horror Short Film
I didn’t (and still
don’t) know much about Bloody Mary, beyond her being some kind of
urban legend-type being with the “Say my name three times and I'll
appear and murder you” caper going on, but as a horror topic, I
quite like the idea of it. The Bloody Mary Horror Short Film
features a woman taking part in the “Bloody Mary Challenge”,
using her smartphone to film the results as she repeats Mary’s name
in a mirror by candlelight.
I enjoyed how the film
was shot, but the speech in places was a little hard to hear. I
haven't quite decided if this was intentional so that when the
louder, jump-scare type events happen, people will have already
raised their speaker volume, or if it is just one of those things
that didn’t quite go right. It wasn’t much of an issue, but I
felt that the film would have been improved with a better audio
balance. The build-up and climax were both pretty good, and the bit
at the end where the video seems frozen...
Published on
YouTube: 19 March 2018
Written and Directed
by: Shibu
Starring: Chaithra and Ajay
Produced by: The
GM Films
***
Thanks for taking the time to read this piece. If I had to choose one short as my favourite of the three, I think it would be VEXED, so if you only check one out, maybe make it that one.
If you’ve seen any
horror shorts that really impressed you, please let me know, as I’d
be interested to check them out myself. Or, if you make them yourself, I'd be happy to take a look at those too.
